The Story of Rattmann
by InaraM
Summary: We all know rat man from his cryptic messages and poems, but how did he get there? Why is he so intent on helping Chell? This is his story, the story of Rattmann. Rated T for safety. This is a continuing story, please please leave a review, one word is enough.
1. Chapter 1

**Rat man**

Doug had known that working at Aperture Science had been a bad idea, but his therapist had insisted that his concerns were more to do with his latest schizophrenic episode than with any reasonable concern.

It was also partly due to the fact that he didn't like being away from his little girl for most of the day. Chell was his angel, his saving grace. His wife would have been so proud to see how she had grown to become so much like her, mischievous and tenacious.

He looked forlornly out of the window of the coach as he commuted to work, thinking of Chell, and the tasks that lay ahead that day. He had been put to work on their new project straight away, and though it took his mind successfully away from his wife for a few hours, Chell's face as he left each morning stuck with him.

GLaDOS was the project that had his entire department's devotion, a new type of machine on the razor edge of modern science. 'She' was meant to be the first truly sentient, completely artificial life form; the work of over fifty of the world's brightest and morally lax scientists.

She was magnificent.

She was terrifying.

She also had her heart set on killing each and every one of them.

"You missed all the fun; we had to hit the kill switch on her again today" Called his one friend from a control pedestal, a wide grin splitting his face.

"I don't see why that should be cause for such glee Henry." Doug stated disapprovingly as he climbed the steps to join his colleague.

"I do believe, Douglas, that we have gone over this before."

It was true. Doug had argued before with Henry about his chirpy optimism, to no avail. He was simply convinced that this was to be the scientific breakthrough of the century, Doug on the other hand knew better; if anything was going to come from GLaDOS, it was more likely to involve some sort of disaster.

Doug, distracted by work, shrugged, tapped a few buttons and collected data before he had to go back to his lab, muttering to himself the entire time as he always did.

"Hey." Henry said as Doug turned to go, "How's your pet project going? Wheatley, right?"

He stopped, and smiled to himself,

"He is going to be great."

Wheatley was the answer to an important question: _How does one clog up her circuits and confuse her murderous streak without detracting from her abilities and intelligence?_

Wheatley had not been the first attempt; the prototype had been a small computer core that filled her processor with ideas about space and desire to see it. Although a clever idea, it was obvious and irritating and it took GLaDOS less than thirty seconds to get sick of it and take it offline. Wheatley would succeed where its predecessor failed, Doug was sure; it had no obsessions or motives, it simply offered ideas and suggestions that were based on faulty logic, in short, it was designed to be a persuasive moron.

The name was a joke, based on the scarecrow from Wizard of Oz, having had a head full of wheat and no brain. One of Henry's friends had annoyingly pointed out that the scarecrow actually had a head full of straw; but he could hardly call his invention Strawley, that would have sounded shit.

Months passed like this. Doug kept mainly to himself at work, whilst Chell spent hours waiting for him to come home each evening becoming a very self-sufficient eleven year old.

When he was home he was a kind and loving father, spending hours reading to her and playing logic puzzles with her. But there was a problem, recently he had been staying longer at work and when he was home he would be distant and distracted, to the point that he had forgotten to take his medication for a few days.

Doug didn't notice anything different straight away, but people began to seem more secretive and untrustworthy. He thought he would spot them following him on his way home in the evenings; they were talking about him in the corridors; Plotting; Watching; always watching him. It was only when he had accused Chell of being an imposter planted by Aperture Science that he realised that his mind was deceiving him. He only forgot his medication that once. He couldn't scare Chell like that ever again.

However he had begun to realise that his absence had been noticed, Chell seemed lonely. Unfortunately, she had inherited his social life; Doug was her only friend bar the companion cube he took home from work for her, and the teddy bear that guarded her sleep.

He needed to step up his game as a father; he had to get her more involved with his life.


	2. Chapter 2

Cafeteria food is shit. There is no getting around it. How was one supposed to live off of undercooked burgers and possibly radioactive coleslaw? At least they attempted to cook and prepare the meals. Doug experimentally prodded an as yet unidentified 'ingredient ' in the coleslaw, his mind distracted.

"Do you remember when the company used to do a bring your daughter to work day?" He asked Henry wistfully.

Henry who was in the middle of a large mouthful of semi raw chicken, stopped to think.

"It sure has been a while, it was before your time." He replied between mouthfuls, "the kids wanted to play with the equipment, heh, that went well..."

They talked about the old days when Cave was still around, the time a young Henry helped make combustible lemons, the drunken incident with the repulsion gel leading to its ban in the new tests. by the end of the day, Doug had a rare spring in his step, they were going to bring back 'take your daughter to work day' day!

This time no children would go missing, no one would get bored and explore the forgotten parts of the facility. This time would be structured. This time they would have a project to complete. Chell was going to love this!

"But I don't wanna go." She whined that evening over dinner, "it's a big and scary, and I won't know anyone."

Her tears were like bullets. This wasn't how he had planned it, she was supposed to leap into his arms at the chance to spend more time with him.

"think of it as a challenge." He smiled, she shot him a sharp glance, "you have to present a science project to the enemy, you must be cunning and brave."

She struck her tongue out at him, her watery grey eyes still a bit red, but he knew he had won her over, it would just take a while for her to realise. Sure enough, by the end of that week, she was bursting with ideas and raring to get started.

If only everything was that easy. The Wheatley project was going to schedule but something still bothered him. He knew he would never trust GLaDOS, even with Wheatley, she could still go ape shit. Henry was working on the morality core, but everyone can ignore their conscience.

"We got another test run scheduled for today, this time without the neurotoxin, and with our fabulous additions." Called Henry as he came into the lab. Doug stopped what he was doing and gazed wearily at his friend, and for once, Henry's smile faded.

"I know mate, we're all tired of her murderous streak but don't worry; we've got her this time."

Doug hinted a smile, though even that was forced, and prepared for the first test of the day

Ten main scientists gathered around the impressive figure hanging from the ceiling, that was the life's work of those men: GLaDOS.

"Alright Henners" called another of Henry's friends, "flip her switch."

Henry, unusually solemn, obeyed; and after an impressive display of touch typing, the distinctive starting up sound sent a shiver down their spines.

Her head nodule swung to look at them individually.

"Designation: GLaDOS. Core objectives: testing." She said, "awaiting instruction."

The scientists looked at each other nervously.

"Secondary objective?" called the alpha male of the group.

"That is yet to be assigned, Dr Gideon." She replied smoothly. Some of their number exhaled heavily, as though this was their moment of truth. Doug's eyes narrowed suspiciously.

_Well done GLaDOS, you have fooled them._

Doug stayed aloof for the rest of the day. He needed to prepare for the worst. They would never understand.

He began by placing extra protective gear round the corridors and each lab; but when he heard that GLaDOS had been given access to the neurotoxin, against his express concerns, he knew it wouldn't be enough.

"Hey Doug..." Henry started awkwardly scratching his neck, "some of the guys have been wondering, do you know where all of the gas masks have been going?"

Doug's eyes snapped up sharply to look at him. Henry couldn't keep his gaze.

"I'm sorry to ask, it's just... some of the guys think you've been acting a bit odd lately, and then with the equipment disappearing from lock up and appearing all over the place..."

Doug was hurt. He expected the others to gossip and misunderstand but; Henry? His face grew distant and cold; Henry recoiled, regretting the whole idea.

_I know what to do._ Henry shrugged with forced nonchalance and strolled out of the lab. _I'll just go back to the guys.. tell them that they have it all wrong. Doug is eccentric yes, but really he is harmless. We don't have to continue without him..._


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter 3**

"You've seen the way he is." Said Dr. Gideon, to vigorous nodding from the other scientists behind him.

"He's a harmless cook, I swear. He won't hinder the project; he created Wheatley!" Reasoned a desperate looking Henry. "look, he's my friend, I can't shut him out like this; I can't lie to him."

"its starts with a few stray pieces of safety equipment, but where will it end? Stealing equipment? Fiddling with GLaDOS's systems? It's common knowledge that he has some special interest in her; even GLaDOS has noticed."

Henry's eyes narrowed or a split second, not long enough for anyone to notice. "you say.. GLaDOS noticed?" luckily, Dr. Gideon didn't notice the suspicion in his voice.

"Yeah." Piped up one of the other scientists, "She noticed how his lab hours were mostly logged whilst no one else was around, and she says that he has been tampering with her systems without notifying us."

Silence.

Henry felt the weight of their stares. They were judging his every expression, trying to gauge whether or not he would turn against his friend.

_So GLaDOS is keeping an eye on our behaviour? And Doug has been tampering with her? Could she be lying? No, she is just a computer, she can't lie. Can she? Then Doug is being evasive, acting a bit insane? Doug should have told him. Why is he keeping secrets? __**Can**__ he be trusted?_

Henry finally began to nod, a resigned look spreading across his often merry face.

"He can't be trusted" came a small voice out of the crack in his lips. "We have to keep him away from GLaDOS before he can do any damage to our work."

Dr. Gideon's shoulders lowered and he let out an impressively long breath. He took Henry's hands in his own, and turned to leave. Henry's skin felt dirty, he was surprised, no, disgusted at himself.

Footsteps. Her ears closed in on the sound.

Thud. Her heart quickened as tucked her feet beneath her centre of gravity.

The sound of keys jingling. She sprinted to the door, her previous engagement forgotten in an instant.

As the weary scientist opened the door to his home, he barely had time to set down his bag and close the door before a small bundle of paint strewn Chell collided with him. The embrace lasted long enough for the liquid red to stain his midriff; he had been working longer hours recently, and it had taken its toll on both of them.

"So," Doug pulled Chell off of him, "care to explain why I will soon be trying to scrub paint off of my jacket" he raised an eyebrow in mock irritation.

Wordlessly she gripped his hand and dragged him to where she had been working. Stretching out her hands she gestured toward a large cardboard sign; emblazoned on which were the words: ENERGY OF THE FURURE!

Doug grinned, she had been working on her Aperture science project. There were pieces of paper scattered around the place with drawings of potatoes, and drafts of her hypothesis and problem. The old and less than fresh smelling potato, that Doug had brought home for her, had been relocated to a Tupperware box that had been buried underneath Doug's dirty clothes pile.

"you ready for the presentation tomorrow?" he asked as he picked her up, spinning her around.

Her smile was wide enough to show the dimples she hated in each cheek; and it made Doug happy, but that feeling began to wan as her smile did.

"Dad? Do I have to talk in front of all these people?" she whined gently. "I'll do it. On **one** condition. You need to be there. The **whole** time!"

Doug looked distracted suddenly. He weighed up the facts and thus, options in his head.

Henry had stopped talking to him. The other scientists had started to shut him out entirely. His work station was moved out of GLaDOS's vicinity, Wheatley was taken off of him, and he was reassigned to the maintenance of the Aperture Image Format. Surely they would still use Wheatley? There wouldn't be any harm in being away from his post for an hour or two. Yeah, he could manage it. He wasn't the only responsible person in the company, there was always Henry at least.

To Chell's obvious glee Doug nodded and taking his index finger crossed his heart.

"Then we're ready." She said simply with a nod.

"So, we're ready." Sighed Henry heavily.

The other scientists nodded solemnly, Henry's rare mood seeming surprisingly contagious.

"okay boys," called Dr Gideon, "if we're going to properly beta test GLaDOS tomorrow, we'd best get some rest. Go on, fuck off, the lot of ya."

Amidst the quiet chuckles in response, the crowd dispersed; and Henry grabbed the Doctor's arm.

"look, Matt," Henry said in a weak voice, "fine we're beta testing but surely we should keep Wheatley online, or one of my creations."

Dr Gideon looked at the Henry, observed the bags under his bloodshot eyes with distain.

"Pull yourself together, she's a bloody machine. You've been listening to the Ratt too long my friend; I'm not having some madman's inventions screwing up the test tomorrow."


End file.
